Over Head, Under Shelves
by nepetation
Summary: In which Kagami procrastinates and Kuroko is entirely unhelpful.


Physics was a hard class. It was especially hard, if your name happened to be Kagami Taiga, whose mind constantly wavered to the topic of basketball rather than sticking with the formulas and lectures. Why did he even sign up for this class? Sometimes he wondered if he was an undiscovered sadomasochist.

Overall, it was definitely a class he needed to study for on his own time (of course he was too stupidly independent and stubborn to accept a tutor), which is why he was pacing the shelves at the local library for a book on the topic. Normally he wouldn't be at a library on a Sunday afternoon, not willingly at least, but the was a time that called for the most desperate of measures, what with a huge test coming up soon. Tomorrow to be exact, and Kagami hadn't read over a lick of his text book before that very morning to prepare. So now it was very important that he slave away over his studies until the library closed.

That gave him- he back peddled from behind the shelves so he could catch time on one of the stationed clocks- less than three hours. Oh, was he screwed.

It took forever to find the book he needed. He must have passed it two or three times, grumbling to himself about how stupid the Dewey Decimal system was (he hadn't realised it wasn't organized alphabetically at first, and wasn't even looking on the right bookcase), before he finally found it. Four shelves above his head. Even straining on the tips of his toes he couldn't reach the book below that one.

"God dammit," he mumbled, his jaw clenched as he was visibly frustrated by now. What kind of a place has bookshelves that tall? They were even huge for him, and that was saying something. There was no way he'd be able to reach it like this, but he really needed that book. He did a quick look around for any nearby librarians, but saw none available to help him.

It seemed he was face with no other choice...

Being over six feet tall, one would think Kagami would have second thoughts about climbing the bookcase like some fucking out-of-control toddler, but of course he didn't. He went straight out spider monkey on those selves. Okay, not quite, but he was still hoisting himself up to to stand on the second and third shelf. He'd always been determined, one had to give him that much.

He was reaching for the book, fingers brushing the dusty spine, when he felt a tap on his lower back and a tug on his shirt.

"Excuse me..." A wooden voice from below, not loud or intense, but nevertheless it scared the shit out of Kagami, made him lose his balance. Of course somehow, in some desperate attempt to stay up, he pulled the shelf down with him. In hindsight it was a miracle it didn't topple earlier, with his added weight making it so top heavy.

He acted fast in trying to catch the self, but the was no need- it was chained to the wall and stopped short. The books, however, did not. And there were a lot of books. Heavy ones.

Every single one was dumped to the ground in a chorus of whoomps. There was the occasional hiss or groan from the other person and Kagami suddenly felt very... very terrible.

"Shit," he hissed, before crouching below the angled bookcase to get a look at the guy. He was a librarians aid; that was clear from the name tag and he wore, though Kagami couldn't read it from his current position. He was pale, also incredibly small, at least curled under that shelf and all those books he was.

Kagami blubbered some idiotic apologies, straightening to brace himself against the bookcase and push of back up. It was harder than he'd anticipated, working some grunts out of him. The other boy groaned, winced and rubbed his shoulder as he rose to his feet with the shelf out of his way now. His tag read 'Need help? Ask: Kuroko', being visible now that he wasn't hunched over himself.

He was still small- so tiny now that the two boys were standing together. He couldn't have come passed Kagami's shoulders. Dear god, was he tiny. He was also kind of cute. Cute? Was he cute? Maybe now wasn't the best time to judge the aids looks, seeing how Kagami'd just almost crushed him.

"Are you...okay? Sorry. I needed to... Sorry. Fuck I'm so sorry I- sorry oh God-" Yeah, Kagami was a mess.

Kuroko gave him a stony stare, one that would puncture holes in a ship if one were to cross his path. He was irritated. Probably since he'd be the one picking up this mess. The taller boy decided he'd better help out, especially with some of the higher shelves.

"You know, I was following you around, waiting for you to ask for help finding what you needed for... Fifteen minutes? Do you know how a library works?" His voice was low and condescending; it made Kagami feel like a child.

"Well, you could have said something!" He was shouting now, why was he shouting? He was too embarrassed, he didn't want this.

Kuroko shushed him softly, shrugged his shoulders. He didn't look like he wanted to answer that question. "Didn't I just ask if you know how a library works? Keep your voice down."

"Right..." Kagami grumbled, "Seriously though, I am so sorry. Really fucking sorry. I just- agh can I make this up somehow?"

If this were a perfect world (it obviously wasn't or else Kagami wouldn't be in this situation), he'd demand something simple like a drink, they'd eat a meal together, talk, laugh, shyly look at each other when they accidently brush hands as they walk, possibly make-out... There was no way that was happening, but a guy could dream, right? Sure, he'd only just met the kid, but he was a looker. Meaning just really pretty look at and Kagami wasn't ashamed to say he really wanted to look at him. No,wait he definitely was, there was no way he'd say that.

The corner of the smaller boy's lip twitched upward. Did the library suddenly get very cold? "I'm recruiting you for hard labor. You can make this up by cleaning your mess."

Kagami nodded roughly, ready to say he'd already planned to stay and help, when Kuroko snapped the last word out like a rubber band. "Alone."

Fantastic. He'd be there all night. He didn't know how to sort books! And somehow he didn't think Kuroko, the librarian's "aid" would be telling him how either. His shoulders slumped significantly, and he gave the other a boy a wide-eyed, 'are-you-shitting-me' expression. So much for awkward book-shelving flirting. Although in Kagami's state, maybe that wasn't so much a bad thing.

Kuroko dragged over a nearby stepstool and perched himself on it. Was he smirking? His expressions were meagerly shown so it was hard to tell. Either way, Kagami was irritated, both at the fact he hadn't noticed the stool, and that Kuroko was clearly trying to draw his attention to it. How infuriating.

"You'll be here awhile," he said from his smug little seat. Wouldn't Kagami need that for the higher shelves? Maybe he wouldn't be so smug once Kagami picked him up off that stool like some doll.

But of course, looking around, Kuroko was right. There were books all over the place, and Kagami wasn't a fast worker, not with things he didn't enjoy. Like Studying. That why he hadn't started his until today.

Speaking of which, there was no way that physics test was getting a passing grade tomorrow.

 **/AN: ...waiting for you to ask for help..." sure kuroko, okay**

 **Unbetad! :( Sorry for any mistakes!/**


End file.
